Artificial intelligences like Apple’s Siri have become so widely known in both people’s lives that it’s no wonder that the story of Persona 5 Strikers (out today on Playstation 4, Switch and PC) has its own AI assistant in the form of EMMA. But what you may not immediately notice is that EMMA is played by the woman who pronounced the original Siri.
Susan Bennett is a professional voice actor best known for lending her talents to Apple’s Siri assistant from its inception in 2011 until the iOS 7 update in 2013. Bennett’s voice was recorded in 2005 by a company called ScanSoft , a secret project she did not realize was for Apple until Siri was launched years later. Apple will still not officially confirm that Bennett is Siri, but A CNN investigation concluded in 2013, with 100% certainty from sound forensic experts, that she is the voice of the personal assistant.
Fast forward to today and the release of Persona 5 Strikers outside Japan. In the game, EMMA serves many of the same functions as Siri in the real world. It finds nearby shops, plans itineraries, makes schedules and can even suggest things like what to bring on a camping trip. The teenage main characters quickly realize how useful it is and download it on all their phones. An example of EMMA’s voice can be found below (jump to 9:44 if timestamp does not work).
In the spirit of avoiding spoilers for a game released today, I would just say EMMA has remained an integral part of the story ever since, but Bennett’s work is easy to miss if you play like me with Japanese voices . This connection was first brought to my attention by Twitter resolution user, who described the appointment of Bennett’s localization team as ‘the biggest flex’ in her. original tweet, en Kotaku it has since confirm this is the case.
Since performing for Siri, Bennett has continued to give her voice to various projects, with customers ranging from Coca Cola and McDonald’s to Ford and Goodyear. Persona 5 Strikers is perhaps her first major concert in the video game industry, but she nails the whole “soulless AI that might have bad intentions” what I think the EMMA program is going to do. I guess her time as Siri prepared her for it.